There are no bright colours, and none of the hectic activity you associate with theatre for the very young. Life may be black and white, but the imagination is vivid and running riot in this latest piece from Theatre-Rites, the company that has put play back into the play and produced some of our most outstanding theatre of the past decade. So, it is intended for children? Well, ain't they the lucky ones.
My preference is for the company's site-specific productions, including the legendary Houseworks, a show that would certainly make my list of desert island theatrical experiences. But this surreal piece, commissioned as part of the Young Vic/Bite Young Genius season, cocks a snook at those who think theatre for children is dull and worthy. Owing as much to the gallery as it does to the stage, throwing traditional narrative to the winds and delving into the psychological more than the literal, it is liberating for the spectator and must be for its creators, too. The engaging ease of the performers suggests that they find it as much of a giggle as the audience.
True, there is an early worry that the show may concentrate too much on national curriculum-based skills, but Sue Buckmaster's production soon whirls away into other worlds, other planetary systems and other ways of looking where we fit into it all. This is a show that asks all the big questions - whether you are four or 40 - such as where do I come in the pecking order? Where do I fit in? Who am I? Friendship, sibling rivalry and the monster within us all get a look in a show that, with the aid of a balls of varying sizes, a balloon, music, projections and puppetry, makes a lot from very little.
This play lacks the rose-tinted view of childhood that afflicts so much children's theatre and literature. It doesn't try to hide the fact that being a child is often difficult and frightening. But it also asks what should it be like to be a child? The answer, like the show, is lots of fun.
· Until November 5. Box office: 0845 1207511.
